"The fiasco over the collapse of the West Coast Main Line franchise deal was the result of "irresponsible decisions", an MPs' committee has said.

The transport committee blamed "major failures" at the Department for Transport (DfT) and the civil service."

"Embarking on an ambitious - perhaps unachievable - reform of franchising, in haste, on the UK's most complex piece of railway, was an irresponsible decision for which ministers were ultimately responsible.

"This was compounded by major failures by civil servants, some of whom misled ministers."

In the report, Ms Ellman said: "Many of the problems with the franchise competition, detailed in the Laidlaw report, reflect very badly on civil servants at the DfT.

"However, ministers approved a complex - perhaps unworkable - franchising policy at the same time as overseeing major cuts to the department's resources. This was a recipe for failure which the DfT must learn from urgently."

It was an all round embarrassment. Mitchell screwed up, the police screwed up, Downing Street screwed up. But, apparently apart from this fiasco, he was quite good at his job. But he could have caused trouble, he had to be bought off to be got rid of. That is the popular view.

He'd better extend his vacation then as there are many more questions to answer.

Unfortunately, as European Commissioner it does look like he's going to
be another Euro poodle there. He does feel though that Europe has become
over-regulated... careful me'boy don't start stepping out of line now.

____________The Kite Fliers

--------------------
Kite fliers: An imaginary club of solo members, those who don't yet
belong to a formal team so "fly their own kites" - as the saying goes.

There all the same, "After the horse has bolted", they do this all the time and
will carry on doing so. There all the same, yesterdays people who can never see
no further than today; hence always surprised by what tomorrow brings.
____________The Kite Fliers

--------------------
Kite fliers: An imaginary club of solo members, those who don't yet
belong to a formal team so "fly their own kites" - as the saying goes.

Most probably is a practice on the real thing. If we leave the ECM the Brussels
Commies will send over the French to invade us, and guess where? yes, you've
got it, at " Gosport". I expect we will be waiting though. There'll always be
an England.....Scotland, Ireland & Wales of course, not so sure though about France, Germany
etc.
____________The Kite Fliers

--------------------
Kite fliers: An imaginary club of solo members, those who don't yet
belong to a formal team so "fly their own kites" - as the saying goes.

How soon we forget.
Those people doing the cheering and giving the discounts are the very ones that were spat upon and called baby killers when they came home from serving in Vietnam. They refuse to allow that to happen to another generation.

A comment from the second link tells me I'm not alone in thinking on these lines....

"these are very interesting remarks ,coming from Germany. I think the gremans can see the writing on the wall.it becomes more and more obvious every day the eu is finished .it cannot work and it has always been a stupid idea.the eec was ok and that's all it should have been ,not the eu shambles. I think Germany may now be looking for a way out and hoping to put much of the blame on others. conspiracy theory ,maybe ,but the germans havn't made this sort of admission before."

Come April, could they become Germany's version of UKIP? Would be nice if they both linked up......

4 inches of snow last night bought most of the south-east of the UK to a
standstill. Someone forgot to send the gritters out and thousands of motorist
became stranded. Has our P.M. stood up in parliament today requesting
someone's head on the block for this?

____________The Kite Fliers

--------------------
Kite fliers: An imaginary club of solo members, those who don't yet
belong to a formal team so "fly their own kites" - as the saying goes.